Being sick today (for the past 4 days, actually) makes me crave for comfort food. Comfort food is Ilocano food that I grew up with. Chinese food has also become my comfort food. And the turo-turo style at Happy Delicious Kitchen apeals so much to me and my family!

My favorite is Taiwanese pientong – packed lunch box that consist of one meat dish, 2 veggies and rice. In Taiwan, hub’s folks don’t have to bring me to anywhere fancy. I’d be perfectly happy with a pientong, especially the porkchop rice, from one of the turo-turos there.

Locally, we are, or at least I am, always on the hunt for authentic Taiwanese turo-turo. And we were happy to have discovered Happy Delicious Kitchen on, where else, Benavidez Street, Binondo! One can go on a Benavidez food trip and get a huge taste of Binondo already…

For a foodie family such as mine, Benavidez Street in Downtown Manila is proving to be a haven. The original Masuki (Ma Mon Luk) is located there, as well as Wai Ying and Sushi Yum (affordable Japanese – will blog about it soon). Our newest Benavidez discovery is Lan Zhou La Mien, which serves authentic hand pulled noodles.

Top – Cha Chiang Mien; Bottom – Pork Ribs Lamien Soup

Lanzhou is a city in Northwestern China that is popular, among other things, for hand-pulled noodles. Hand-pulled noodles have always fascinated me. The pulling and twisting of dough that eventually produces noodles is another Chinese ingenuity. No tools are necessary – just strong arms!

4. Hopia. My favorite hopia mungo is made by Kim Chun, an unknown shop along Soler Street. It’s got a very homemade taste (even the packaging, as you can see). I like it more than Eng Bee Tin. My hubby introduced it to me, but there’s no other way to buy it but come all the way to Soler. Too bad I could not buy loads of it because the shelf-life is only 1 week. Well, I’ll enjoy while it lasts!
5. Machang. Sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf. It may have meat, egg, water chestnuts, and sausage in it. The “egg”-less type is my hubby’s fave.

These are my kids’ remedies:
1. Pei Pa Koa (P200.00 for a 300ml bottle). A thick syrup that’s known to relieve the sorest throat and loosen the stickiest phlegm! I had my Patchy try it. She says it wasn’t bitter and was cool to the throat. About an hour after taking PPK, she had a coughing fit and taran! Her phlegm came loose. Try it, I think it does work. I’ve heard celebrities talk about it too. You can buy it at Watson’s, I think.

2. Mopiko(P100.00 for 1 small tube). It’s a Japanese brand, tried and tested by my MIL. It’s cool like liniment. The package says it is for itching, muscle pain, and insect bites. Let’s hope it works for VGood.

3. “She Zhi” (P50.00 for a small tube). The drugstore owner recommended it to be good for itchy-ootchies. So we bought it. If it doesn’t work, then it’s okay — it’s only 50 bucks anyway. When we got home, hubby read the brand (it only occured to him to read it just now! how clever!). Literally translated, it says “Snake Fat”. :-0

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I started blogging in 2006 after giving birth to Nate, partly due to boredom. :) I really just wanted to try creating an online journal about my kids, and also to see if the knack for writing was still there.
But blogging opened up a whole new dimension, leading to many new experiences and opportunities. Read More...